New professors appointed in 2025

Prof Dr Thilo Albers
(Faculty of History and Philosophy) 

Thilo Albers has been an assistant professor in the Department of History, specialising in economic and social history, since October 2024. He also offers courses at the School of Business and Economics (FB 04). He enjoys teaching economics and history to aspiring historians and economists alike. Professor Albers studied economics, geography and economic history in Münster, Washington D.C., Granada and London. He received his PhD in economic history from the London School of Economics and Political Science. During his doctoral studies, he undertook an extended research stay at the University of Bonn. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Humboldt University in Berlin.

His research focuses on the historical evolution of living standards, economic inequality, crises, cities and statehood since the 19th century. He often applies his findings to current developments by constructing extended time series, analysing crisis policy or uncovering mechanisms that explain the modern status quo in light of historical events.

Faculty of History and Philosophy

Prof Dr Daniela Bartels
(Faculty of Music)

Daniela Bartels is Professor of Music and Music Education at the Institute of Music Education. She completed her studies in music and English for teaching at secondary schools and comprehensive schools at the University of Music and the University of Hanover in 2009. This was followed by four years of teaching practice as a trainee teacher and music and English teacher at the Clay School in Berlin-Neukölln. From 2013 to 2017, Daniela Bartels was a research assistant at the University of Music in Weimar. In her doctoral thesis, she examined the value of ethical concepts of a ‘good life’ for music education. At the same time, she founded and directed the pop choir ‘zimmmt’ in Berlin, whose members still practise artistic co-determination and choir singing without a conductor. From 2017 to 2019, Daniela Bartels taught as an academic advisor at the University of Cologne, where she further developed the concept of democratic choir conducting. From 2019 to 2022, she held a visiting professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts, where she explored possible connections between ethics and music education and launched the podcast ‘Mehr als Töne – Musikpädagogik und Gesellschaft’ (More than Sounds – Music Education and Society). From 2022 to 2025, Daniela Bartels worked as a lecturer for special tasks at the Lübeck University of Music. There she taught community music and participatory group music-making and helped design the continuing education programme ‘Music in Social Work’.

University of Music

Prof Dr Michelle Becka
(Faculty of Catholic Theology)

Michelle Becka has served as professor of Christian social ethics and director of the Institute of Christian Social Sciences at the Faculty of Catholic Theology since April 2026. She studied Catholic theology in Tübingen and Cochabamba (Bolivia), completing her doctorate in social ethics in Tübingen in 2004 with a dissertation on “Recognition and Interculturality”. Following a position at Adveniat, she held research posts in Frankfurt and Mainz, first as a research associate and later as a postdoc financed by an independent research grant. In 2015 she completed her habilitation in Mainz with the study “Punishment and Resocialisation: An Introduction to an Ethics in the Penal System”. After holding a visiting professorship at KHSB in Berlin, she was appointed professor of Christian social ethics at the University of Würzburg in April 2016 where she remained until her move to Münster.

Alongside her continued interests in intercultural issues and ethics in the prison system, her current research focuses on political ethics, particularly human rights, migration, democracy and authoritarianism, as well as core ethical concepts such as responsibility, solidarity and the commonweal. Interdisciplinary collaboration and practice-oriented thinking are central to her work. This is reflected in her leadership in the Human Rights Working Group of Justitia et Pax, which brings together scholars and practitioners from politics, the Church and NGOs to address the issue of human rights under pressure from authoritarianism.

In addition to serving on numerous boards and in professional associations, she is the editor of the Yearbook for Christian Social Sciences and the series “Society – Ethics – Religion”.

Faculty of Catholic Theology

Prof Dr Antonia Eder
(Faculty of Philology)

Antonia Eder has been a professor of modern German literature in the German Studies Department since 1 April 2025. Prior to this, she held several temporary and visiting professorships, including at Humboldt University in Berlin, the University of Bonn and the Free University of Berlin, where she was adjunct professor of modern German literature at the Institute of German and Dutch Philology in the summer semester of 2024. From April 2023 to March 2024 she held a substitute professorship at the Institute of German Studies at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). In 2022 she was a fellow at the Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Cologne, and in 2019, a fellow at the Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

Her academic career has taken her to the University of Geneva where she worked as a senior assistant, to KIT as a research assistant, and to the German Department of the University of Chicago and the University of Konstanz as a research fellow. She completed her doctorate at the University of Tübingen with a dissertation entitled “The Pact with Myth: Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Destructive Quotations from Nietzsche, Bachofen, and Freud.” She gained additional academic qualification with a habilitation on “Indices: The Emergence of a Narrative Order in Law, Literature, and Semiotics (1740-1820).”

Her research focuses on the historical foundations of science and the medial communication of knowledge, particularly in the intersection between literature, law, semiotics, psychology and forensics. Her other research interests include cultural studies and literary history, the reception of antiquity, literary aesthetics and ethics, as well as perspectives on gender and genre theory, which also play a central role in her work.

Faculty of Philology

Prof Dr Nihad El-Kayed
(Faculty of Educational and Social Sciences)

Nihad El-Kayed has been a professor of “Migration, Diversity and Social Coherence” at the Institute of Sociology (IfS) since January 2026. She previously worked at the Institute of Social Sciences and the Berlin Institute for Empirical Integration and Migration Research at Humboldt University in Berlin. She studied social sciences at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf and sociology at Bielefeld University, completing her doctorate in sociology at Humboldt University in Berlin. She has also conducted research at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the University of California, Berkeley.

Professor El-Kayed’s research focuses on political sociology, migration sociology and urban and spatial sociology. She is particularly interested in questions of social, legal and political inequality in societies shaped by migration and diversity. Her research analyses the interplay of legal, social and spatial categorisations and boundary processes, and the relationship between spatial and social mobility opportunities. In her research and teaching, she uses quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method designs. She has headed several third-party funded projects on the arrival processes of refugees and other topics related to her research interests. She is currently the co-principal investigator of the collaborative research project “Political (In)Equality in the Post-Migrant Democracy” at the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM), funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. Nihad El-Kayed is also a member of the editorial board of the open-access journal “sub\urban”.

Faculty of Educational and Social Sciences

Prof Dr Anna Flückiger
(Faculty of History and Philosophy)

Anna Flückiger has held a research and teaching position in the Department of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at the Department of History of the University of Münster since February 2026. Her focus is on early historic archaeology, specifically the archaeology of the first millennium AD. After studying archaeology in Munich and Bonn, she completed her PhD in pre- and protohistoric archaeology and Roman provincial archaeology at the University of Basel in 2018. From 2014 onwards she held positions there as a pre- and then postdoctoral assistant. Between 2023 and 2025 she also held an interim professorship in Bonn and Tübingen.

Professor Flückiger is particularly interested in the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages, as well as research narratives. She is currently researching base-metal finds and related issues such as material circularity, reuse and the value of material and objects. In Münster, she is committed to fostering a lively teaching environment with a strong practical focus.

Faculty of History and Philosophy

Prof Dr Ulrike Freywald
(Faculty of Philology)

Ulrike Freywald teaches and conducts research at the Institute of German Language and Literature. After studying German Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, and Public Relations and Communica­tion Studies in Berlin and Vienna, she obtained her doctorate from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin with a thesis on clause combining. She worked as a Lecturer at the University of Potsdam and then moved to TU Dortmund University to take up a professorship in German Linguistics with a focus on grammar and teaching methodology.

Her research focuses primarily on grammar, spoken language and language variation. She is particularly interested in structural aspects, such as different word order patterns in sentences, word doubling (e.g. “Freundfreund” ‘friend-friend’ or “jetztjetzt” ‘now-now’) and the systematic omission of linguistic expressions. Her work focuses on everyday language and communicative practices in urban areas, including the Ruhr region and Berlin. This comprises various research topics such as public signage, nicknames for streets and squares, and sales conversations at a weekly market. Finally, with several partners in Dortmund, Genoa and Shenzhen, she is researching facets of multilingualism in (post-)industrial metropolitan areas in Europe and China. 

Faculty of Philology

Prof Dr Ora Hazak
(Faculty of Biology)

Since January 2025, Ora Hazak has been a professor at the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology, where she heads a research group on communication between plant cells as part of the Maria Sibylla Merian Professorship. She studied plant molecular biology at Tel Aviv University, where she also obtained her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. Her subsequent post-doctoral training took place at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Ora Hazak has been active in research since 2004 and began teaching plant biology at the University of Tel Aviv in 2012 and later at the Universities of Lausanne and Fribourg. From 2019 to 2024 she headed a research group at the Department of Biology at the University of Fribourg. Her research focuses on signals in the roots of plants. Professor Hazak investigates the communication between root cells which is controlled by secreted peptides and receptors.

Faculty of Biology

Prof Dr Robert Hein
(Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy)

Robert Hein was appointed associate professor of chemistry at the Institute of Organic Chemistry in April 2025, where he leads a research group supported by a Liebig Fellowship and a NRW Return Fellowship. He studied chemistry at the Jacobs University in Bremen and subsequently obtained his PhD on the topic of “Electrochemical Anion Sensing in Solution and at Interfaces” at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom). Following his doctorate, he completed his first postdoc at the University of Oxford from 2020 to 2022. From 2022 to 2024 he conducted research as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the University of Groningen (Netherlands).

Professor Hein’s research focuses on the synthesis and analysis of novel molecules which reversibly change, e.g. their colour, fluorescence or geometry in response to electrical stimulation. His research group investigates these so-called redox switches for both fundamental research, as well as proof-of-concept applications. This includes sensors, molecular machines, energy storage and especially responsive materials. By integrating redox switches into various materials like polymers, gels, surfaces and nanoparticles, their molecular-level switching properties can be amplified to the macroscale, thereby enabling researchers to construct e.g. electrochromic materials or adaptive actuators for soft robotics.

Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy

Prof Dr Klemens Horst
(Faculty of Medicine)

Klemens Horst was appointed director of the Department of Trauma, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery at the University Hospital Münster (UKM) at the beginning of 2026. Prior to this, he worked at the University Hospital at RWTH Aachen, where he served in a managerial function and headed a DFG research group. He studied human medicine in Germany, Great Britain and Switzerland. Over the course of his career, he has gathered extensive experience in clinically treating severely injured patients (polytrauma).

Professor Horst is particularly focused on conducting fundamental research on post-traumatic inflammation and its local and systemic effects. To this end, he investigates how disrupted healing processes – e.g. slow or absent bone healing – develop and how to improve these therapeutically. In Münster he plans to expand his prior work on mechano-biological findings and integrate them at the UKM. In addition to research, he focuses his efforts on teaching and continuing education. He is committed to implementing innovative training concepts and promoting continuing cross-sectional medical education. One of his key areas of interest involves expanding regional, national and international partnerships in trauma treatment. He also strives to strengthen geriatric traumatology and the early mobilisation of older patients. He is interested in developing civil-military collaboration in emergency care. In addition to his multiple areas of interest, Professor Horst is actively involved in several professional associations.

Faculty of Medicine

Prof Dr Sabine Huy
(Faculty of History/Philosophy)

English version follows. 

Faculty of History and Philosophy

Prof Dr Selina Kathleen Jorch
(Faculty of Medicine)

Selina Jorch has been an assistant professor of pathophysiology and plasticity of inflammation, infection, and resolution at the Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Therapy since April 2025. She studied biology at the University of Giessen and molecular biomedicine at the University of Münster, where she completed her doctorate in immunology in 2015. She then worked for four years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Snyder Institute at the University of Calgary in Canada before heading a junior research group in the Cluster of Excellence “Immunosensation2” at the University of Bonn.

Professor Jorch’s research focuses on monocytes, macrophages and neutrophil granulocytes in various organs. The aim is to better understand the dynamics of the immune system in connection with clinically relevant diseases. She focuses on directly visualising the behaviour of immune cells, their functions during inflammation, infection and their resolution, whereby she applies microscopic technologies, such as laser scanning confocal and 2-photon microscopy.

Faculty of Medicine

Prof Dr Diana Khoromskaia
(Faculty of Physics)

Diana Khoromskaia has been an assistant professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics since March 2025. She holds a master’s degree in physics from Heidelberg University and a master’s degree in complexity science from the University of Warwick, UK. With a scholarship from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council UK, she completed her PhD in Physics, also at the University of Warwick, on the theory of active liquid crystals. This was followed by two postdocs at the Francis Crick Institute in London and at University College London. At the University of Münster, her new junior research group is supported by the NRW Returning Academics Programme in the field of ‘Materials Science’ and is based at the Center for Soft Nanoscience.

Her research focuses on the theoretical physics of living matter – i.e. soft biological materials –across different scales. This involves developing models and simulation methods to better understand mechanochemical pattern formation, transport processes and dynamic deformations, e.g. in the cytoskeleton of individual cells or in thin tissue layers – often in close collaboration with colleagues from biology. One focus is on uncovering the principles of self-organisation of these so-called active systems, which are far from thermal equilibrium. In the future, these mechanisms may serve as an approach to generate and control complex structures in lab-grown organs or in synthetic active materials.

Faculty of Physics

Prof Dr Matthias Kleinmann
(Faculty of Physics)

Matthias Kleinmann has been a professor in the Department of Quantum Technology since February 2026. After studying physics in Heidelberg, he earned his PhD in quantum information theory in Düsseldorf in 2008. After holding research positions in Innsbruck, Siegen, Belo Horizonte and Bilbao, he returned to Siegen where he completed his habilitation in 2019, focusing on the structure of quantum theory.

Professor Kleinmann’s research focuses on the theoretical foundations of quantum theory, the theoretical framework for much of modern physics. His work is based on the interplay between theoretical and experimental progress in quantum technology. On the one hand, a deeper understanding of quantum theory enables technological advances in the field. Conversely, he exploits enormous experimental advances in quantum technology to develop novel tests of quantum theory, thereby further improving our understanding of its foundations.

Professor Kleinmann’s work also focuses on operational predictions of quantum theory. Such statements are independent of a specific experimental implementation and are therefore based directly on the mathematical structure of the theory. One key distinction is between everyday classical physics, in which individual objects have well-defined properties, and quantum physics, in which not all properties can be assigned simultaneously. In addition to this, his research explores the limits of quantum theory, particularly the question of what distinguishes it from general operational theories of physics.

Faculty of Physics

Prof Dr Daniel Kluger
(Faculty of Medicine)

Daniel Kluger is a professor of translational brain-body neuroscience, a position he has held since February 2026. He has served as the principal investigator of the Body, Brain and Behaviour Lab at the Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignal Analysis at the University Hospital Münster (UKM) since 2021. He studied psychology at the University of Münster, receiving his PhD in cognitive neuroscience in 2014. After completing his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Joachim Gross’s lab at the Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignal Analysis. In 2025 he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant.

Professor Kluger’s research group uses non-invasive neuroimaging to investigate the interplay between brain activity and physiological rhythms, such as respiration and heartbeat. Regarding female health, Daniel Kluger’s lab is interested not only in neural changes across the menstrual cycle, but also in the interaction between hormonal levels, interoceptive processing and well-being. In clinical applications, the Body, Brain and Behaviour Lab investigates pathological changes in the subjective experiences and behaviours of populations with psychiatric symptoms (e.g. anxiety disorders), as well as neurological diseases such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.

Faculty of Medicine

Prof Dr Rabea Kohnen
(Faculty of Philology)

Rabea Kohnen has been a professor in the German Studies Department since April 2026. She studied German and philosophy at Ruhr University Bochum and earned her doctorate in medieval German studies in 2010. She completed her habilitation at the University of Vienna in 2025. She has also served as a research assistant, temporary academic advisor and assistant professor at Ruhr University Bochum. She has taught at the University of Paderborn and the University of Amsterdam. Between 2019 and 2025 she was a tenure-track professor at the University of Vienna and was appointed associate professor there in 2025.

Professor Kohnen’s research focuses on German-language literature of the Middle Ages at the intersection of cultural studies, narratology and textual philology. She currently leads an Austrian Science Fund (FWF)-funded project on the 12th-century Vorau Manuscript 276, as well as an EU-funded project on the 16th-century publisher Sigmund Feyerabend, which is part of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Network. Her upcoming habilitation thesis proposes a narratological approach to analysing voices in texts, illustrated by medieval Mariological commentaries on the biblical Song of Songs.

Faculty of Philology

Prof Dr Florian Kurpicz
(Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science)

Florian Kurpicz has been a junior professor since October 2025 and heads the Algorithms and Data Structures research group at the Computer Science Departement. He studied computer science at TU Dortmund University, where he also earned his doctorate on index data structures for efficient pattern matching in texts. After completing his doctorate, he joined the Institute of Theoretical Informatics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) as a postdoctoral researcher, where he led the Data Structures subgroup.

At the University of Münster, Florian Kurpicz continues his research on scalable data structures for high-throughput data processing. His goal is to bridge the gap between theory and practice: With his research group, he develops algorithms and data structures that perform reliably in real-world applications while providing theoretical worst-case guarantees.

His work focuses on fundamental problems such as sorting, lossless compression, and efficient access to (compressed) data. These foundational results have applications in areas such as pattern matching, data analysis, and the visualization of segmentation volumes.

Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science

Prof Dr Julia Kurth
(Faculty of Biology)

Julia Kurth has been working at the Institute of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology since March 2025. After completing her studies in biology and microbiology at the University of Bonn, Julia Kurth earned her PhD in 2017 in Bonn studying enzymes involved in bacterial sulphur metabolism. She then moved to the Netherlands as a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University in Nijmegen and later at the University of Wageningen. During her postdoctoral period, she established her research on new metabolic pathways in archaea, microorganisms of the third domain of life, which have played a crucial role in various biogeochemical cycles on Earth for billions of years. Before accepting the appointment in Münster, she led the "Microbial Physiology" group at the Microcosm Earth Center at the University of Marburg in 2022.

The focus of her research is on anaerobic bacteria and archaea, i.e. microorganisms that live without oxygen. The combination of metabolic physiology, protein biochemistry, molecular biology, and environmental microbiology aims to promote a better understanding of certain microbial metabolic pathways, the involved proteins and the environmental relevance of the corresponding microorganisms. A key research area is the investigation of archaea and metabolic pathways involved in the production of the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide. With respect to climate change, it is of great importance to identify and understand the processes and microorganisms involved in greenhouse gas production. One of Professor Kurth’s primary goals is to discover previously hidden substrates utilised by anaerobic archaea and bacteria which play a hitherto overlooked role in the global carbon cycle and greenhouse gas production.

Faculty of Biology

Prof Dr Nicolas Legewie
(Faculty of Educational and Social Sciences)

Nicolas Legewie has been a professor of research methods at the Institute of Sociology since June 2025. He studied social sciences at Humboldt-Universität of Berlin, where he also received his PhD at the Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences. He has held research and teaching positions at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), the University of Pennsylvania, City University of New York, Stony Brook University, Columbia University and the University of Erfurt.

His research focuses on developing and advancing methods of empirical social research with particular emphasis on video data analysis and computer vision techniques for the social sciences. Substantively, he examines the intersection of social inequality and artificial intelligence, especially in the areas of migration, integration and education. One current project surveys how people perceive and evaluate digitalisation and artificial intelligence, shedding light on public attitudes toward emerging technologies. Another uses audit studies to assess the political leanings of large language model-based chatbots, contributing to our understanding of AI systems that increasingly shape information retrieval, content production and communication worldwide. A third project applies video recordings and computer vision to analyse avoidance behaviours in public spaces, providing new insights into everyday interaction and social boundaries. Professor Legewie is currently building the Visual Analytics Research Lab (VARL), which leverages computer vision to study social interactions and aims to create interdisciplinary collaborative research within the University of Münster and beyond.

Faculty of Educational and Social Sciences

Prof Dr Zoltan Mann
(Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science)

Zoltan Mann was appointed professor of computer science in October 2025. He studied computer science at the Technical University of Budapest (TU Budapest) and mathematics at Eötvös Loránd University Budapest. After completing his studies in computer science (1996-2001) and in mathematics (1997-2004), he received his PhD in computer science from TU Budapest in 2005. He completed his habilitation in computer science at TU Budapest in 2015. Prior to joining the University of Münster, he held various academic positions at national and international universities. Most recently, he served as professor of cybersecurity at the University of Halle-Wittenberg from December 2024 to September 2025. Previously, he worked as an associate professor at the University of Amsterdam and as a senior researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

His research focuses on the intersection of cybersecurity, distributed systems and machine learning. Specifically, he works on the security of machine-learning systems, the automated management of IT security risks, and the selection of appropriate privacy-enhancing technologies. His research aims to enhance the security, robustness and privacy-friendliness of modern IT systems.

Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science

Prof Dr Aliyah El Mansy
(Faculty of Protestant Theology)

Aliyah El Mansy professor of Biblical Studies and its didactics at the Faculty of Protestant Theology. After studying Protestant theology in Wuppertal, Leipzig, Jerusalem, and Marburg, she earned her doctorate and habilitation in New Testament Studies at the University of Marburg, where she also worked as a research associate (2009–2022), including a research stay at the University of Toronto, Canada. She then served as a vicar and pastor near Gießen until 2025.

Her research focuses on diversity-conscious exegesis and ancient economy and social history. In her doctoral dissertation, she examined processes of identity formation and boundary-making through endogamy and exogamy in the Bible and the ancient world. Her habilitation explores the theological and socio-historical contextualization of literary stereotypes in the Gospels regarding tax and toll personnel. With her focus on questions of gender, economics, intersectionality, and identity, she aims to contribute to historically grounded exegesis that simultaneously engages contemporary concerns. She is also committed to enabling students to interpret biblical texts critically and responsibly and to articulate their relevance for contemporary learning and life contexts in a critical way.

Faculty of Protestant Theology

Prof Dr Sven G. Meuth
(Faculty of Medicine)

Sven Meuth has served as director of the Department of Neurology at Münster University Hospital (UKM) since 2026. He studied human medicine at the Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg where he also completed training in neurobiology. He earned both his medical (Dr med) and natural science (Dr rer nat) doctoral degrees with the highest distinction in 2005 and 2007, respectively. He began his scientific and clinical career at the University Hospital Würzburg, followed by a research placement in the United States. He then joined the University Hospital Münster, serving in various roles including senior consultant, deputy director and professor of neuropathophysiology. From 2020 to 2026 he was director of the Department of Neurology at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.

His research focuses on neuroimmunology, particularly multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory diseases of the nervous system. He investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuroinflammation, developing new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. His work takes a translational approach, aiming to channel research findings into clinical application.

Faculty of Medicine

Prof Dr Alexander Mook
(Faculty of Physics)

Alexander Mook has been a full professor of theoretical physics since October 2025. He studied physics at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, where he received his PhD in 2017. Following his doctoral studies, he held several research positions in Germany and abroad, including a Georg H. Endress Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Basel from 2019 to 2022 and a postdoctoral appointment at the TU Munich. From 2022 to 2025 he led the DFG Emmy Noether research group “TopMagIc” at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. In 2025 he was awarded the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose University Award.

Professor Mook’s research focuses on collective excitations in solids and their interactions across different subsystems, ranging from spins and lattice vibrations to electronic degrees of freedom. He focuses on magnons and phonons, their couplings, and the topological properties and quantum geometry that result. A central theme of his research is the theory of unconventional magnetic materials, where novel symmetries lead to unanticipated coupling mechanisms and nonlinear spin-wave phenomena. Additionally, Professor Mook is developing modern theoretical methods to accurately capture transport and many-particle effects, as well as the coherent dynamics of such coupled subsystems. At the University of Münster, he intends to further strengthen the connection between fundamental theory and forward-looking material concepts.

Faculty of Physics

Prof Dr Muriel Moser-Gerber
(Faculty of History and Philosophy)

Muriel Moser-Gerber is Professor and Chair of Roman History at the Department of Ancient History since October 2025. She studied Classics at the University of Cambridge, where she completed her bachelor's and master's degrees and received her doctorate with distinction in 2013. She then worked as a Research and Teaching Assistant and, from 2013, as an Assistant Professor of Ancient History at the Department of History at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, where she was concomitantly director of the Subproject “The Past as a Political Resource: Memory as a Strategy in Greece under Rome” within the collaborative research centre “Discourses of Weakness and Resource Regimes” from 2015 to 2018. In Frankfurt, she also completed her habilitation thesis “Athens and its Roman Benefactors. From Atticus to Nero (86 BC to AD 68)”. Research stays took her to Paris, Cologne, Cambridge and Yale, and she was also a fellow of the Johanna Quandt Young Academy from 2019 to 2022. She is currently a member of the steering committee of the Mommsen Society.

Muriel Moser-Gerber examines various aspects of Roman rule and the exercise of imperial power in Roman antiquity. To this end, she focuses, among other things, on Greece in Roman times, examining memory strategies and how Greek cities positioned themselves in the Roman Empire. She also deals with the relationship between the emperor and the senate and the cities of Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity. In addition, her research focuses on Roman epigraphy and women's history: current projects are devoted to public speech acts and the associated dynamics of power, as well as women as actors in the ancient economy.

Faculty of History and Philosophy

Prof Dr Jens Paschmann
(School of Business and Economics)

Jens Paschmann began teaching and researching at the Marketing Center Münster (MCM) at the School of Business and Economics in October 2025. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology at the University of Münster, after which he completed his PhD in business administration (marketing) at the University of Cologne. Prior to his appointment at the University of Münster, he was an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Cologne. During his doctoral studies, he pursued research at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

His research lies at the intersection of marketing analytics, artificial intelligence and consumer behaviour. He uses data-driven methods to investigate how consumers interact with new technologies. His current projects explore the impact of AI systems on consumer behaviour and the way in which algorithmic decisions influence trust and perceived control in consumption. His methodological toolbox includes causal inference, Bayesian statistics and machine learning.

Professor Paschmann has received several awards for his work, including the HORIZONT Dissertation Award (2023), an Add-on Fellowship from the Joachim Herz Foundation for interdisciplinary, practice-oriented research (2023) and an honourable mention from the Psychology of Technology Institute (PTI). He is currently establishing an assistant professorship in marketing analytics at the University of Münster, combining data-driven quantitative analysis with psychological consumer research.

School of Business and Economics

Prof Dr Julian Roelle
(Faculty of Psychology/Sport and Exercise Sciences)

Julian Roelle has been professor at the Institute for Psychology in Education (IPBE) since September 2025. There, he heads the research group “Psychology of Learning in Education and Instruction”. After studying psychology at the University of Freiburg, he went on to earn his doctorate and habilitation in psychology at Bielefeld University. Before accepting the position at the University of Münster, he researched and taught at the Ruhr University Bochum, where he held a professorship in educational intervention, evaluation and implementation starting in October 2017 and a professorship in educational psychology starting in July 2020.

His research topics can be categorised under the following key areas: metacognitive self-assessment by learners, practice, desirable difficulties in learning, and the interplay between knowledge construction and retrieval practice. His research on metacognitive self-assessment by learners focuses e.g. on the causes of inaccurate judgments of learning and performance on the part of learners and on instructional support measures to promote self-assessment accuracy. His research on practice focuses on the mechanisms and effects of practice for maintaining comprehension and factual knowledge. In his research on desirable difficulties in learning, Professor Roelle examines the effectiveness of learning activities that learners find strenuous (compared to “conventional” learning activities) and that subjectively hinder their learning progress, but which in fact stimulate effective learning processes and pay off in terms of learning outcomes. Finally, in his research on the interplay between knowledge construction and retrieval practice, he examines the effectiveness of combining (partial) learning tasks that are aimed either at knowledge construction through generative learning or at knowledge consolidation through retrieval practice. In all areas of his research, he focuses on the entire range of one’s academic career – from primary to higher education.

 

Faculty of Psychology/Sport and Exercise Sciences

Prof Dr Jana-Elisa Rüth
(Faculty of Psychology and Sports Science)

Jana-Elisa Rüth was appointed professor at the Institute for Psychology in Education and Instruction (IPBE) in March 2025. She is chair of the work unit Emotional and Social Development in Inclusive Schools. She studied at Bielefeld University and received her doctorate in psychology with distinction. In her dissertation she focused on the development and socialisation of emotional awareness and emotion regulation in adolescence. Before accepting the position at the University of Münster, she conducted research and taught as a postdoctoral fellow at Bielefeld University in the research unit Developmental Psychology and Psychopathology.

Jana-Elisa Rüth is interested in the development of emotional and social skills in childhood and adolescence, as well as their connection to mental health, well-being and academic performance. In this context, she examines the role of personal resources (e.g. self-efficacy, perspective-taking ability) and contextual/social resources (e.g. parental support, integration into peer groups). When considering various risk and protective factors, she also focuses on individual needs and the school-learning setting (e.g. inclusive schools, special schools). In addition, Professor Rüth is interested in promoting the emotional competences of children and adolescents as well as the emotion socialisation of caregivers (e.g. teachers and parents). Jana-Elisa Rüth is particularly interested in conducting empirical research on the challenges and opportunities of support in a school context and its significance for successful learning and social interaction.

Faculty of Psychology/Sport and Exercise Sciences

Prof Dr Matthias Schiedel
(Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy)

Matthias Schiedel has held the Chair of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry. He studied Pharmacy at the University of Freiburg, where he also completed his diploma in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and earned his doctoral degree with distinction in 2016. He subsequently pursued a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford before returning to Germany in 2019 as a Liebig Fellow and junior group leader at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. In spring 2023, he was appointed Professor of Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at TU Braunschweig.

Matthias Schiedel’s research is situated at the interface of Medicinal Chemistry, Chemical Biology, and Organic Chemistry. His work focuses on the development of synthetic molecules (chemical probes) to elucidate cellular mechanisms and on the discovery of novel therapeutic agents for inflammatory and infectious diseases. A key area of his current research is the development of chemical tools targeting G protein-coupled receptors, which represent approximately one-third of all clinically validated drug targets. Particular emphasis is placed on newly identified intracellular allosteric binding sites, which offer innovative avenues for modulating this therapeutically highly relevant class of proteins.

Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy

Prof Dr Carl De Strycker
(Faculty of Philology)

Carl De Strycker was appointed professor of Dutch literature at the Institute of Dutch Philology in October 2025. Following his studies in Dutch and German at the University of Antwerp, he completed a teacher training programme and studied philosophy for an additional year. In 2011 he earned his doctorate at the University of Ghent with a study on Paul Celan’s influence on Dutch literature. In 2013 he received qualification in cultural management from the Antwerp Management School. From 2012 to 2023 he served as director of the “Poëziecentrum” in Ghent, a research and documentation centre for poetry in the Netherlands and chief publisher of the journal “Poëziekrant”. Between 2023 and 2025 he served as coordinator of “BNTL” (Bibliografie van de Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde) and editor of the literature pages “De Standaard der Letteren” for the Flemish newspaper “De Standaard”. He has taught at several universities, including Vienna, Ghent and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

His research interests lie primarily in modern and contemporary Dutch literature. He particularly focuses on relationships between Dutch and German literature – as well as those between literature and music, film and the fine arts. His research also focuses on cover designs of poetry volumes and the translation of poetry.

Faculty of Philology

Prof Dr Lilian Sophie Szych
(Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy)

Lilian Sophie Szych has been a junior professor since October 2025 at the Faculty of Chemistry, where she teaches and conducts research at the Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry. She studied chemistry at the University of Rostock, completing her bachelor's and master'sbetween 2013 and 2018 and subsequently earned her doctorate there in February 2022. After her doctoral studies, Lilian Sophie Szych held several postdoctoral positions in Germany and the United Kingdom. She first worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Braunschweig, followed by a stay at the University of Oxford from 2022 to 2023, funded by a Leopoldina postdoctoral scholarship. She then joined Freie Universität Berlin, where she initially continued her research as a postdoc and later led a junior research group supported by the Liebig scholarship from the Chemical Industry Fund.

Her research focuses on structure-reactivity relationships in organometallic compounds, particularly those based on the elements phosphorus and sulphur.  The focus is on the targeted synthesis and characterization of new, highly reactive species and their computational analysis in order to develop catalytically active compounds for the activation of small, industrially relevant molecules. The projects in their research group combine fundamental research questions with practical applications, with the aim of developing new concepts in sustainable catalysis. In particular, she investigates how main-group elements can serve as resource-efficient alternatives to traditional transition-metal catalysts. Her findings are expected to contribute to more efficient chemical processes and may also stimulate advances in related fields, including the development of innovative materials and new manufacturing methods.

Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy

Prof Dr Peter 't Hart
(Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy)

Peter ‘t Hart was appointed professor at the Institute of Biochemistry in April 2025. After completing his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, he obtained a master’s degree in pharmacy at Utrecht University. He then went on to earn his doctorate in chemical biology at the same university. In his dissertation, Peter ‘t Hart focused on chemical-biological approaches for the discovery and characterisation of antimicrobial peptides. After completing his doctorate, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Dortmund. He later started his own research group at the Chemical Genomics Centre as part of the same institute.

Peter ‘t Hart investigates how RNA-binding proteins interact with their target RNAs, and the role these interactions play, particularly in cancer. His work focuses on the body’s own RNA, which continuously interacts with numerous proteins that regulate its production, function, and degradation, among other things. One area of his research involves using artificial intelligence to generate potential drugs that can influence these RNA-binding proteins. This method significantly reduces the time and effort which traditional approaches generally require.

Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy

Prof Dr Fahimah Ulfat
(Faculty of Islamic Theology)

Fahimah Ulfat has been a professor of Islamic religious education and didactics at the Centre for Islamic Theology of the University of Münster since April 2025 (since the foundation of the faculty on 1 July 2026, it has merged into the Faculty of Islamic Theology). She completed a teaching degree at the University of Duisburg-Essen, pursued advanced studies in Islamic religious education at the University of Osnabrück and earned her doctorate in 2016 at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg. From 2017 to 2020 she served as an assistant professor of Islamic religious education at the University of Tübingen. She was subsequently appointed to a full professorship there, where she taught and conducted research until March 2025.

Fahimah Ulfat’s research focuses on empirical religious education. She examines the belief and knowledge concepts of Muslim children and adolescents, as well as the professional competences of teachers of Islamic religious education. A particular emphasis lies in linking empirical research with theological and didactic questions. Together with Rabbi Dr Asher Mattern, she founded the Jewish-Islamic Research Centre which explores historical interdependencies and current challenges in Jewish-Muslim relations. She is also involved in an interdisciplinary research project to develop a virtual learning environment in cooperation with LMU Munich, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, and Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences. The aim is to open up new avenues of teaching and learning through the use of immersive technologies. Interreligious learning is also one of her key areas of interest, for which she works closely with colleagues from Protestant and Catholic religious education in research and teaching.

Faculty of Islamic Theology [de]